Review for Oninaki. Game for Nintendo Switch, PC and PlayStation 4, the video game was released on 22/08/2019
Is there life after death? It is one of the fundamental questions that still have no answer today. They are universal questions because they span all cultures: no one has the unshakable certainty of what there is once the eyes close forever, and the fantastic realm created by Tokyo RPG Factory to Oninaki, although the contrary is professed, it is no exception.
The development house, under the protective wing of Square Enix and heartened by the success of I Am Setsuna and Lost Sphear, signs their third JRPG in time for the end of the summer. Oninaki, this is the name, distances itself from the snowy I Am Setsuna and its nostalgic spiritual sequel Lost Sphear, to propose something very different. Permeated by what looks like cherry petals In fact, Oninaki tries to touch other chords by talking about a theme not usually addressed in such a blatant way: death.
In the realm of Oninaki there is only one belief: yes, life after death exists, and it is other life. To be more precise, all the people firmly believe (because it is corroborated by the current monarchy) in reincarnation once they are dead. Such certainty obviously changes the way you look the grim reaper in the empty eyes, but above all it also changes the way you express your pain. The so-called "laws of reincarnation" are very simple and dominate everyday life: once dead it is possible to pass over and therefore reincarnate, or remain anchored to the previous life due to outstanding issues (becoming Lost).
It is up to the Watchers, a group under the direct command of the kingdom, make sure people make the journey in its entirety; if this does not happen, the Lost would become Fallen, aggressive monsters whose only instinct is to attack. The Watchers have the gift of being able to travel between the world of the living (the Living World) and the afterlife, called Beyond the Veil. Kagachi, the protagonist, has the gift of moving from one side of the veil to the other with a simple touch of the controller.
Albino and characterized by heterochromia, Kagachi is only a child when we meet her. His parents have just died when he meets a peer that only he can see: their meeting is short-lived, because then the girl disappears. Years later Kagachi grew up, was cast as Watcher and hardened towards the world, never letting his feelings shine through: he couldn't shed a tear for his parents and be sad about their passing, because the laws of reincarnation state that pain holds the loved one in the afterlife and does not allow them to reincarnate in another person. Watchers have the privilege of being able to converse with deceased souls and listen to their story in order to make them go further and, given the difficulty of facing death with a different feeling that is not mourning, it goes without saying that their task is fundamental. for the balance of the kingdom. We meet Kagachi as an adult during one of his missions, together with his childhood friend Mayura, also Watcher (who is also the daughter of the leader of the Watchers, Kushi), among the plains that welcome us in the latest effort of Tokyo RPG Factory and subsequently forge a friendship with the same mysterious girl known years ago, Linne.
That it is a Japanese-style RPG is clear from the first seconds of the game, from the first dialogues in Japanese and above all from the particular graphics used to make Oninaki akin to an anime through cel shading. Despite the triumphs of this technique, such as the Borderlands series or, to use a closer video game, The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild (if we don't want to disturb it, The Wind Waker is fine too), the game world in which we are called to move Kagachi is sterile, dominated by shades of brown that follow each other generating a kingdom that, due to a few brushstrokes, is not very detailed.
In short, we are not in front of the state of the art of this popular technique, but of many models repeated in their poverty and in rather small areas (the concept art in the game menu is beautiful instead).
We would have expected maybe a Greater contribution from Square Enix towards a production desired with as much confidence as Oninaki (this is the third game in five years), why the feeling at times is that of being faced more with a budget game than a medium-high level production. It is also true, however, that just as the dress does not make the monk, the graphics do not make the video game. There are a lot of titles that have gone down in history for the other components that form the medium we love so much, specifically gameplay, music and plot.
Let's face it first the gameplay, which is (perhaps?) Oninaki's strong point. To the turn-based combat of I Am Setsuna and Lost Sphear, the Japanese studio has preferred to change the cards on the table, proposing a fight in real time and thus giving the title an Action component. Kagachi fights alongside Daemons, entities that have not been able to reincarnate but with a strong will, who give the protagonist their weapons and their skills. From this point of view, Kagachi has no peculiar abilities other than a natural inclination to fight: the real protagonists are the Daemons, like Aisha, a fast swordswoman and main Daemon of Kagachi and all the other similar ones that the young Watcher will meet in the its path.
The key word in Oninaki's gameplay is variety: Using the first Daemons encountered as an example, Aisha gives Kagachi the ability to use a katana and dodge, Zaav to wield a spear and jump, Wil to parry with a mighty ax and Dia to allow ranged attacks with the crossbow combo -rifle. It will therefore be necessary to change the fighting style (and Daemon) on the fly with a press of the analog button, creating a party of four Daemons to change to your liking, depending on their abilities and the enemies found in front of them.
Each Daemon has its own peculiar characteristics: real branches through which to unlock new attacks, passive abilities, which usually increase stats such as attack or critical hit, personal history and also two exclusive Oninaki mechanics: affinity and manifestation. Affinity is the degree of connection between Kagachi and his Daemon: the more time passes, the more attacks they make together, the more the affinity increases, consequently increasing the damage of your partner. A Daemon is able to "manifest" instead, when it reaches 100% affinity or more: it is a mode that sees the Daemon turn red and increase attack and critical hit for lethal damage. Once it returns to normal, you will have to start working on your affinity again to get back to being more effective.
The enemies that we will find ourselves facing - about fifteen re-proposed in various colors with a very thin moveset, to tell the truth - can (must) be approached in a different way depending on the situation.. Depending on the purest RNG and a good dose of button mashing, once the monsters are defeated they will release stones with which to unlock the skills and, more generally, to enhance our comrades in arms. Each Daemon has its own peculiar stone (for Aisha it is the Sword Stone, for Zaav the Spear Stone, etc.) and is therefore It is necessary to use a specific Daemon to obtain the specific stone, struggling a lot with the newly claimed Daemons and which are, by logic, weaker.
Upon their (final) death, the enemies will also drop other types of stones - the soul stones - which can be pigeon-holed to the weapons of the Daemons thanks to the alchemist present in the city. The alchemist is the embodied improvement system of the title: since there is no game currency, to upgrade the weapons you will have to sacrifice other superfluous ones and use the gathered soul stones to add (free) effects to the above mentioned. Crude, but effective.
With the sharper weapon it will be easier to deal with the (adjustable) difficulty and ever-increasing number of enemies that Tokyo RPG Factory has in store for us in both worlds: Kagachi, in fact, is special and, as mentioned, it can pass to the other world when desired: it is presented in "negative", with strong dark colors, but exactly like the one just left. Every visible and walkable place in Oninaki has its counterpart and as a result, every area has double the threats. They will not always be immediately available: if Kagachi tries to go to the afterlife without first defeating the Soul Stealer of the area (a common but bigger and badder enemy) he will not be able to attack. Killing the mini boss is equivalent to lifting the Veil Blindness that previously prevented its movements. The reasons to go Beyond the Veil from time to time are mostly repetitive, between portals that allow you to advance in areas that are impassable in the Living World and chests that contain uninteresting treasures (unfortunately they do not concern the stones of the Daemons - those will be farmed together with incense, the cures in Oninaki).
A very serious gap is added to the gameplay, which in its own right is not lightning-fast. It is the thought of many, in fact, that the great RPGs of the past rest on two pillars: unforgettable music and plots. Unfortunately, for a development study that makes its banner of the look to the past towards the great RPGs, Oninaki disappointingly disappoints. The soundtrack is the great absent one, present with the dropper and only in the moments that Tokyo RPG Factory has considered topical and worthy enough to have a musical accompaniment. There is a deathly silence in Oninaki: the play areas and 90% of the fights, strange but true, are devoid of music. “Minimalist” or “environmental” are euphemistic adjectives to say that only the sound effects of the attacks are present and that the music comes alive (almost) only during the fight with the bosses. An inexplicable choice, which led us to do several tests to make sure it was not a bug, but which soon proved to be well founded.
The absence of music, of course, ends up affecting the entire game experience and in an important way during the (many) fights, which reveal an underlying monotony that could have been dampened through a musical "illusion" - and which, again once, we would have expected a triple-A sim with the support of a giant like Square Enix. The few pieces that survived the slaughter recall something already heard and certainly not memorable as befits this genre, which has seen some of the most illustrious names in the industry come under their aegis and make history, such as master Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy) or Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts).
The final sore point is the plot. The development team went to great lengths to create a moving and darker story than previous titles to move the player but - in no uncertain terms - ended up doing harakiri, failing miserably.. There are several moments and twists that should make you cry like a fountain, but the underlying problem is this: the game fails to be visceral and the "twists" mentioned are totally indifferent. Causes a problem in the characterization of characters, forgettable and present for a short time on screen and some dialogue only occasionally dubbed (most of the phrases on screen are contextualized with a single Japanese sound) Oninaki ends up being uninteresting to follow, passive and unemotional.
Writing is the biggest question mark in the whole structure, leading the game to unfold without any real construction or pathos, through Kagachi who, as Watcher, is called upon to solve missions that barely fit into the (slow) storyline, which begins to unravel in its lack of clarity too late, when much of the damage has already been done.
Never as in this case before proceeding with a possible purchase we suggest you try the Oninaki demo, available on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch or PC depending on your favorite platform. A couple of hours should be more than necessary to highlight what are the strengths and weaknesses of the work. Drawing your own conclusions is important, but once the test is over we believe you will side with us in considering Oninaki with one word, this: inanimate.
Oninaki had an important theme to deal with, that of death, but the almost self-imposed limits of Tokyo RPG Factory made it a difficult game to digest without hesitation. We must turn a blind eye to consider Oninaki like the JRPG of the past, primarily thanks to a rather dull level design and a gameplay enriched by the Daemons and the fighting styles they offer, but which reveals itself over time monotonous, certainly not assisted. from sobbing music and a lifeless story. It was legitimate to expect more for a production of this caliber: for the curious the advice is to approach Oninaki with lead feet, while the same team that of recalling their mission (to create role-playing games as it once was) and to develop with a greater dedication, leaving the superficiality to other genres.
► Oninaki is an RPG type game developed by Tokyo RPG Factory and published by Square Enix for Nintendo Switch, PC and PlayStation 4, the video game was released on 22/08/2019
